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Thursday, January 05, 2006

That Within Which Passeth Show

Seems, madam! Nay, it is; I know not 'seems'. 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected 'haviour of the visage, Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief, That can denote me truly; these indeed seem, For they are actions that a man might play: But I have that within which passeth show; These but the trappings and the suits of woe.-Hamlet, Act I, Scene II

Meh. That's pretty much a summation of my current mental state regarding Johnny Damon.He left. It sucked. I move on. *The Muse pokes Emma with a sharp stick to remind her that more than that is required*Not that it didn't severely piss me off when it happened. Especially 3 days before Christmas. I mean, last year Theo gave me and Red Sox Nation a lovely Christmas present called "The Resigning of Jason Varitek". So , this sort of paled in comparison.Yet, my anger was about as fervent as my prose is right now. That is to say,not very. Indifferent, impersonal. Cold fury, rather than betrayal.Johnny Damon the center fielder? I'll miss. ( Except the arm with the tensile strength of string cheese.)Johnny Damon the productive leadoff hitter? Yup, miss that too.Johnny Damon, the persona, the "personality"? Not a rutting bit.

It's exactly the opposite of the way it was with me with Kevin Millar. As numbers, as a body in the field, Millar left much to be desired. But as a person, beyond the laundry, I rooted for, and genuinely felt affection for the big lug. With Johnny, it never really went beyond the laundry, past the surface. Which is seemingly all Red Sox Johnny was, given how easy it was for him to change into Yankee Johnny. I mean, take David Wells. He admitted outright, that he had deep roots as a Yankee. It took effort to move the other way, and given his desire to be traded, he never totally got there. But whatever happened, Boomer was Boomer, and I respected that.Johnny may have set himself as the "spirit" of the team. He may have gotten some national journalists to believe it. I don't know if I ever really did. Billy Mueller was closer to that for me.. Hell, for being here all of a year, John Olerud was closer. They had something which Johnny never did.Johnny was the trappings, the suits. He seemed, and he did it very well. But that's all it was. And as such, he will now seem for someone else, for more more money. More power to him. He and the Yankees deserve each other.

***

Playoffs. Gillette. 2 days. Aw yeah.

***I have decided that this blog, of late, has sorely been lacking in the pretty. I now take steps to remedy that.